I also found Kell’s character to be lackluster as well. But she had very little personality and her character arc hardly even touches on morality. One of the main characters, Lila, is a thief, which typically means that I will become obsessed with her. Maybe my disappointment is due to my high expectations, but I feel that even without those high expectations I still wouldn’t have been blown away by this book.Ī Darker Shade of Magic has all the correct pieces to be truly incredible, but the execution falls short. I just expected more from a book that is so highly and widely praised. I had some pretty high expectations for this series and I’m sad to share that A Darker Shade of Magic missed the mark for me. This series has been recommended to me over and over and now I’ve finally read the first book. Schwab’s books have been sitting on my TBR for years. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn.

She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.Īfter an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see.

Kell was raised in Arnes-Red London-and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Kell is one of the last Antari-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

A darker shade of magic series order